QMI Agency

A Rhode Island woman who was shocked to discover that the wrong body was placed in her mother's casket at a funeral home last month has hired a detective to solve the mystery.

According to the Rhode Island Providence Journal, Margaret Porkka died suddenly on Thanksgiving while on a family vacation in St. Maarten. The family told the paper it believes there was a mix-up with a Canadian who had died on the island within a few hours of Porkka.

Kondvar says that woman’s body was sent to New Jersey while her mother’s body was sent to Ottawa, where it was cremated by another grieving family.

The family says U.S. Sen. Jack Reed has put a staff member on the case and is keeping the family updated with any new information.

“No family should ever have to go through something like this,” Reed is quoted as saying in the paper. “We want to help them get answers and ultimately try to ensure this type of situation never happens again.”

Kondvar said that the funeral home that handled her mother’s body in St. Maarten has not provided any answers and has tried to point the finger elsewhere.

“We want closure,” Kondvar said. “We want to find out if that person cremated in Canada was really our mother.”